I got a decent buck this morning in Bankhead about 10am with a muzzleloader. Knocked him down but apparently he got back up. Had good blood and hair for about 70 yards but then lost his trail. Searched for 2.5 hours. Anyone know of a good tracking dog? I’m willing to pay

I have a number of still needed

Yes please

Best of luck on finding. Hoping to see some pics.

Call Ammon McKinney, 256-808-8412. His dog's name is Woodrow and is a DEER-FINDING-MACHINE!!!

David Jones and his dog Bo is another helluva dog. Plus he's close to Bankhead. He lives in Lawrence Co

Call Ammon.

Well no luck so far.

Story:
I already had dropped down my equipment from my climbing stand. Still had to let my muzzleloader down. I had just unhooked my safety harness from where it was at and I turned around and saw his antlers coming over a hill: 40 yards away and he was climbing up a huge hill. All I could see was his antlers and upper chest/neck. As he crested, he heard me and stopped. He stopped and I pulled my gun up and shot because he was about to run. Neck shot or upper chest. He dropped and rolled a few times down the hill. Then lay there with his legs in the air for a short bit. I turned around to get my safety harness hooked up correctly and thought I heard another deer. I presumed it was another deer because when I went to him about 45 minutes later..... he was not there. I found where he rolled as it was covered with hair and a little blood. I trailed blood and hair for another 70 yards then lost the trail. No froth in the blood, no bile, no gut material, no bone, no black blood. I of course looked for hours for anything else and couldn’t find anything. First deer I’ve shot with a muzzleloader and first one on Bankhead. Been scouting him for a year.

sounds like a backslap

What Bead said. I've done it too. They get over the shock and run off while you are climbing down.

I agree with the above

Any updates? Did you get a tracking dog?

No luck. I talked to Ammon and he felt like the deer probably lived so we didn’t get out with his dog. Thanks everyone for the help.

You should have called someone else. At 40 yards with a 50 Cal pushing a 300 Grain bullet that's probably a dead deer laying in the woods

Not if it went down, then got up and ran off. Most good trackers know a good track. 99% of the time those deer ain’t recovered.

I learned along time ago if it’s a big deer and he drops I keep the cross hairs on him for at least 5 minutes. If he’s a real big one I send another thru his ribs to be sure...don’t eat them ribs anyway.

That's exactly my thinking.

I've shot only one buck so my experience is limited, the first shot was I believe fatal but he flinched and caught another round.
I'm not about to let a buck get away and bullets are cheap. 2 bullets vs hours of my time tracking a deer in hopes of finding him.

Muzzleloader hunting makes getting reloaded and the crosshairs back on him a little hard.

Yep. After reading about all the "back slaps", if they drop instantly, I'll put another one in em just to make sure.